


On a Whim

by strawberryberet



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Makeup, jaehyun and mark are stepbrothers, mark and hyuck are best friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-02-23 04:43:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23505910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberryberet/pseuds/strawberryberet
Summary: "Hyung, lemme do your makeup."
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Comments: 10
Kudos: 326





	On a Whim

“Hey, hyung, lemme do your makeup.”

It’s quiet in the third dorm room on the right, the old ceiling fan shaking slightly as it slowly turns, the window open just a crack. Jaehyun is lying on Mark’s bed with one leg crossed up over his knee, his phone held above his face as he scrolls through Instagram.

“Huh?” He sets his phone on his chest and turns to face Donghyuck, who is blinking at him from his spot on the floor, leaning up against his own bed. His hair is held up out of his face with a bright pink clip, and his bare face is a bit pink too from having just scrubbed away the face mask he’d been wearing.

“I wanna do someone’s makeup,” he says, “but Mark never lets me do his.”

“So I’m a replacement for my stepbrother?” Jaehyun teases, setting his phone down and lifting himself up to join Donghyuck on the floor. “Why don’t you ask one of your other friends? Isn’t Jaemin the one you like?”

Donghyuck’s eyes widen, betraying his surprise, and he tips his head back to groan in frustration. “Fucking Mark! He told you, didn’t he?”

“He talks about you constantly,” Jaehyun laughs, scooting closer until they’re sitting knee to knee on the dorm room floor. One of Mark’s dirty socks is nearby, along with a half-rolled up bag of chips that’s definitely gone stale. “I keep telling him he needs more friends.”

“He has plenty of friends,” Donghyuck rolls his eyes. “It’s just that none of them are as interesting as me. But enough about your lame brother, hyung, can I do your makeup or not?”

“Sure,” Jaehyun says, shaking his hair out of his face. “I’ve never done this before, though.”

Donghyuck gives him a funny look, like he hadn’t been expecting that. “All you have to do is sit there and look pretty. It’s impossible to mess it up.”

“What if I blink a lot?” Jaehyun counters, a grin forming at the corners of his mouth. Donghyuck’s always trying to get others to squirm, so it’s become like a game to Jaehyun to see if he can make Donghyuck crack for once. “Or sneeze on you?”

“Then your makeup will look like shit,” Donghyuck responds, dragging over a lumpy tie-dye bag and opening it up to reveal brushes, palettes, and creams.

“Can you cover up my dark circles?”

“I’m gonna beat your face, don’t worry.”

Jaehyun angles away from him, eyebrows raising. “You’re gonna what?”

Donghyuck sighs and pulls him back to where he was with a hand at the nape of his neck, lingering just a second too long. “God, you’re so straight. Calm down, it just means I’m gonna make you look good.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Jaehyun says, lips quirking up. Donghyuck’s settled between his legs now, so close that Jaehyun can smell his lotion, a light, fruity scent. His next words tumble out as Donghyuck squeezes a dollop of moisturizer onto his hands. “I’m not, by the way.”

“You’re not what?” Donghyuck rubs his hands together and smears it across Jaehyun’s cheeks.

“Straight.”

He’s adding primer next, and Donghyuck’s uncharacteristically quiet for a moment. “Could have fooled me,” he says finally.

“I get that a lot.”

Donghyuck’s got a sponge in his hand now, and it really does feel like he’s beating Jaehyun’s face with how he’s hitting the sponge against his skin over and over. “It’s foundation,” he explains before Jaehyun can ask, his fingers brushing stray hairs away from Jaehyun’s hairline and hitting him with the sponge there, too. “Does Mark know?”

“Yeah,” Jaehyun says. “Why, are you gonna gossip when he gets back?”

“Only if there’s something to gossip about,” Donghyuck replies, taking the sponge to his under-eyes. “This is concealer, by the way.”

“Should we give you guys something to gossip about, then?” Jaehyun closes his eyes as Donghyuck applies something to his eyelids, so he can’t see the look on his face, but he can hear the breathy laugh that ensues.

“What do you have in mind?”

“Depends on what the topic usually is.” He opens his eyes again, watching as Donghyuck’s tongue darts out to wet his lips. His skin is bronzed with the summertime sun, glowing even without any makeup on, and Jaehyun’s eyes trail across the planes of his face, following the moles dotting his skin. “What was that on my eyelids?”

“Eyeshadow primer. So it won’t smudge.” Donghyuck’s gaze is unwavering, the gleam in his eyes and quirk of his lips a clear challenge, though Jaehyun himself isn’t quite sure of what that challenge is anymore. “We talk about a lot of stuff, hyung. I’m sure you’ve heard, since Mark can’t keep his mouth shut.”

“To be fair,” Jaehyun says wryly, closing his eyes again as Donghyuck tips his chin up with one hand and begins working a brush onto his eyelid, “he mentioned your crush on Jaemin on accident.”

“So he claims.” He’s moved to the next eyelid now, and he’s so close that every breath he takes ghosts across Jaehyun’s face. He’d been chewing gum earlier, the minty scent tickling his nose. “I don’t, by the way.”

“Hmm?”

“Have a crush on Jaemin.”

Jaehyun opens his right eye just enough to peer at Donghyuck through his eyelashes, noting that he still hasn’t moved his finger from under his chin. “So Mark lied?”

“No, he just misheard me. Close your eyes.”

Jaehyun obliges, and Donghyuck adjusts how he’s sitting so that he’s practically in Jaehyun’s lap, his pinky resting against his cheek as he continues working on his eyelid. Jaehyun’s hand settles at Donghyuck’s waist on instinct, and when neither of them acknowledge it he decides not to move it. Maybe it’s just the summer heat, but it feels like his palm is burning where it’s resting against Donghyuck.

“He misheard you,” Jaehyun repeats. “What did you actually say?”

Donghyuck doesn’t respond, switching sides and working on his other eyelid. “Look up,” he murmurs, tilting his chin up with his free hand again. They’re so close now that Jaehyun wonders if he can feel the way his heart is racing in his chest. “Wouldn’t you like to know, hyung,” is what Donghyuck finally responds with.

“It’s alright, I can find out from Mark.”

“Why do you wanna know so bad?” Something cold and wet swipes across his eyelid, Donghyuck’s hand cupping his cheek. “This is eyeliner, so don’t move.”

Jaehyun’s hand drifts a little lower, very aware of everywhere that they’re touching. It’s so _hot_ in this dorm room, the fan above them doing nothing for the heat. “Just curious.”

“Open up.”

His eyes open to Donghyuck staring at him, their noses nearly brushing together. After just a beat too long he shifts his head back, his movements over-exaggerated in the way he’s looking at each of Jaehyun’s eyes. “Wow.”

“What?”

“Um…” Donghyuck bites his lips together, his eyes curving upward as his shoulders begin to shake in a silent laugh. “They’re not even.”

“What do you mean, they’re not even?”

Whatever game they’d been playing earlier has come to an end— now he’s properly laughing, his cheeks turning pink as he throws himself forward onto Jaehyun’s shoulder, his lips brushing against his neck. “Oh my god, I fucked it up so bad,” he wheezes, only lifting himself back up when Jaehyun’s hand comes to rest at his back.

“Let me see,” Jaehyun insists, and Donghyuck wordlessly hands him a mirror from his makeup bag.

“Holy shit, what happened?” Jaehyun says, blinking at his own reflection. His foundation is blotchy around his nose, the blush applied way too harshly, and his eye makeup is smudged and entirely uneven. He looks like he’d had his niece do his makeup. “Your makeup always looks so good.”

Donghyuck looks up, tears in his eyes and his cheeks red from how hard he’d been laughing, “I’m terrible at this. So, so bad. Doing makeup on other people is so different.”

He brings his hand up to lightly thump him on the back of the head. “Then why’d you ask to do mine, dude?”

“Well, what other excuse do I have to stare at your face?” he replies, but it’s not with the same easygoing tone he usually adopts when he’s joking. In fact, he doesn’t seem himself at all right now, his head ducked a bit like he’s suddenly become shy, unable to maintain eye contact.

“I can think of a few.” He can’t help but notice that Donghyuck is still on his lap, and he places both hands at his waist, testing the waters. Donghyuck lets out a surprised _ah,_ and his face is beet red when he finally lifts his gaze to meet Jaehyun’s.

“Can’t believe I’m letting you do this with your face looking like that,” he says, his arms sliding over Jaehyun’s shoulders.

Jaehyun breathes out a laugh, tightening his grip and pulling him closer. “Yeah, and whose fault is t—”

“Fuck college, bro!”

The door swings open and a voice rings out, startling the both of them into jerking apart, Donghyuck practically rocketing to the other side of the room, eyes wide in panic for a brief moment as Mark tosses his backpack onto his bed.

“Bad day?” Donghyuck says, a little breathless.

“You have no idea, man.” He closes the door behind him, and then his eyes land on Jaehyun. “Uh… Hyung, what the hell?”

“Hyuck did my makeup,” Jaehyun replies, grinning. “Doesn’t it look nice?”

Mark looks to Donghyuck as if seeking confirmation that this is true, but his friend just gestures back at Jaehyun’s face expectantly. “Doesn’t it, Mark?”

“You look like a clown, bro, straight up.”

“Wow, fuck you, I did a great job,” Donghyuck crows, and the two of them dissolve into their usual back and forth, leaving Jaehyun to slip into the bathroom and wash the mess off his face. Donghyuck had drawn a tiny heart on his cheek in eyeliner, and he finds himself hesitating for a moment before swiping the makeup wipe across it.

Back in the dorm room, Mark and Donghyuck seem to have reached a truce, declaring that they’re going to head out to eat. “You wanna come with us?” Donghyuck asks him, eyebrows raised and a hopeful glint in his eye.

“Yeah, why not,” he replies.

Mark changes into a hoodie and heads out the door, still ranting about some exam for the class he’d just come back from. Jaehyun moves to follow him, but Donghyuck kicks the door closed with his foot and grabs Jaehyun’s sleeve, tugging him closer.

“Wait,” he says. “I forgot to do your lips. You can’t go out looking like this.”

Jaehyun pats his own cheeks. “I already washed it off.”

Donghyuck’s eyebrows furrow, his lips pursed in annoyance. “Will you just let me be cute about kissing you, hyung—”

Jaehyun doesn’t let him finish, bending down to fit their lips together, an arm around his waist and his free hand on Donghyuck’s cheek. Donghyuck melts into him instantly, and he can still taste the spearmint on his tongue past his petal-soft lips. He pulls away to take a breath, and before he can lean in again, Donghyuck grabs his face and chases the kiss with another.

He could get used to this, he thinks to himself as Donghyuck’s palms drag up his chest to his shoulders, so soft and warm in his arms.

“We should go,” Donghyuck murmurs, once he can tear himself away long enough to speak, “before your brother thinks we died in here.”

“Uh huh,” Jaehyun says, but he steals one more searing kiss from him before reaching for the doorknob.

Behind them, the ceiling fan continues idly spinning.


End file.
